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Community Trolls
Community Trolls was a short-lived musical duo between Michael Stipe of R.E.M. and Matthew Sweet. In 1983, they collaborated as part of the Athens, Georgia, music scene, writing and recording three songs together. One of the compositions, "Tainted Obligation", was nearly released on a compilation album in 1986, and later appeared on bootlegs; it was released officially in 2002. Another Community Trolls' song, "Six Stock Answers", appeared in an unreleased indie film featuring Stipe, Sweet and some of their friends.
Community Trolls, who may have at times included additional band members, performed in public at least twice. However, sometime in 1984, Sweet began distancing himself from the Athens music scene, and in 1985 he got a record deal and moved to New York. While he was accused of using his Athens music connections to get ahead and desert the scene, R.E.M. did not hold any hard feelings towards him.
As a teenager in Lincoln, Nebraska, Sweet was a big fan of Mitch Easter. Easter produced R.E.M.'s first single, the Hib-Tone version of "Radio Free Europe". Sweet loved its B-side, "Sitting Still", and became a fan of the band. When R.E.M. performed in Lincoln in September 1982, Sweet went to the show. At that point R.E.M. were still relatively unknown, so there was almost nobody at the concert. Sweet met the band and gave Michael Stipe a tape of songs he had been working on. R.E.M. was from Athens, Georgia, which was becoming famous for its vibrant music scene. Sweet had also read about Athens in New York Rocker magazine.
R.E.M. put Sweet in touch with Easter, who wrote Sweet a number of long letters, and suggested he move to Athens after graduating from high school. Meanwhile, Stipe really liked Sweet's tape, and he also played it for his sister, Lynda, and friend Linda Hopper, who were both in the band Oh-OK. All three sent Sweet postcards saying he should come perform in Athens, with Lynda and Linda inviting him to open for Oh-OK there. Sweet told his parents that he wanted to study at the University of Georgia, in Athens. Within weeks of moving there, he had become a member of Oh-OK, who recorded their EP Furthermore What in August 1983 with him on board. While a member of Oh-OK, Sweet also began collaborating with Michael Stipe as the band Community Trolls.
Sometime in the autumn of 1983, Stipe and Sweet wrote at least three songs together. Of their songwriting process, Sweet has said: "[Stipe] was the real powerhouse behind it. I was pretty tentative in those days. We just sat around, Michael went through the little book he wrote lyrics in, with me just kind of strumming along behind."
They recorded their three compositions with producer John Keane that fall, but only one of the tracks from the session, "Tainted Obligation", has been officially released. Stipe plays accordion on the song, and Sweet acoustic guitar, with vocals by both.
In 1986, "Tainted Obligation" was planned for inclusion on the Zippo/Demon Records compilation album Don't Shoot, but ultimately was left off. It was included on a UK cassette advance version of the compilation, but was removed before the album was officially released. In the early 1990s, the song surfaced as "Tainted Obligations" on R.E.M. bootlegs such as Stab It and Steer It and Chestnut. The track was released officially on the 2002 Matthew Sweet compilation To Understand: The Early Recordings of Matthew Sweet. In a review of the album, Rolling Stone critic Gavin Edwards describes the song as "enchanting" and as having "harmonies as pretty as you can imagine".
Two other documented Community Trolls' songs are entitled "Six Stock Answers" and "My Roof to Your Roof". "Six Stock Answers", whose vocals are by Stipe, was used in an unreleased low-budget forty-five-minute Super-8 film called Just Like a Movie. It was shot in September 1983 in Athens by New York Rocker photographer Laura Levine, a friend of the members of R.E.M. Those with acting roles included Levine, Michael Stipe, Sweet, Hopper, Lynda Stipe, and R.E.M.'s Bill Berry. One scene in the film, a parody of the "Subterranean Homesick Blues" sequence in D. A. Pennebaker's Bob Dylan documentary Dont Look Back, shows Michael Stipe wearing a skirt and tights flipping placards with the song's lyrics, "Six stock answers to 74,000 questions" repeated ad nauseam. Just Like a Movie's plot has two rival bands performing on the same night, leading up to the climax question of "Which band is everybody going to go see?"
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Community Trolls
Community Trolls was a short-lived musical duo between Michael Stipe of R.E.M. and Matthew Sweet. In 1983, they collaborated as part of the Athens, Georgia, music scene, writing and recording three songs together. One of the compositions, "Tainted Obligation", was nearly released on a compilation album in 1986, and later appeared on bootlegs; it was released officially in 2002. Another Community Trolls' song, "Six Stock Answers", appeared in an unreleased indie film featuring Stipe, Sweet and some of their friends.
Community Trolls, who may have at times included additional band members, performed in public at least twice. However, sometime in 1984, Sweet began distancing himself from the Athens music scene, and in 1985 he got a record deal and moved to New York. While he was accused of using his Athens music connections to get ahead and desert the scene, R.E.M. did not hold any hard feelings towards him.
As a teenager in Lincoln, Nebraska, Sweet was a big fan of Mitch Easter. Easter produced R.E.M.'s first single, the Hib-Tone version of "Radio Free Europe". Sweet loved its B-side, "Sitting Still", and became a fan of the band. When R.E.M. performed in Lincoln in September 1982, Sweet went to the show. At that point R.E.M. were still relatively unknown, so there was almost nobody at the concert. Sweet met the band and gave Michael Stipe a tape of songs he had been working on. R.E.M. was from Athens, Georgia, which was becoming famous for its vibrant music scene. Sweet had also read about Athens in New York Rocker magazine.
R.E.M. put Sweet in touch with Easter, who wrote Sweet a number of long letters, and suggested he move to Athens after graduating from high school. Meanwhile, Stipe really liked Sweet's tape, and he also played it for his sister, Lynda, and friend Linda Hopper, who were both in the band Oh-OK. All three sent Sweet postcards saying he should come perform in Athens, with Lynda and Linda inviting him to open for Oh-OK there. Sweet told his parents that he wanted to study at the University of Georgia, in Athens. Within weeks of moving there, he had become a member of Oh-OK, who recorded their EP Furthermore What in August 1983 with him on board. While a member of Oh-OK, Sweet also began collaborating with Michael Stipe as the band Community Trolls.
Sometime in the autumn of 1983, Stipe and Sweet wrote at least three songs together. Of their songwriting process, Sweet has said: "[Stipe] was the real powerhouse behind it. I was pretty tentative in those days. We just sat around, Michael went through the little book he wrote lyrics in, with me just kind of strumming along behind."
They recorded their three compositions with producer John Keane that fall, but only one of the tracks from the session, "Tainted Obligation", has been officially released. Stipe plays accordion on the song, and Sweet acoustic guitar, with vocals by both.
In 1986, "Tainted Obligation" was planned for inclusion on the Zippo/Demon Records compilation album Don't Shoot, but ultimately was left off. It was included on a UK cassette advance version of the compilation, but was removed before the album was officially released. In the early 1990s, the song surfaced as "Tainted Obligations" on R.E.M. bootlegs such as Stab It and Steer It and Chestnut. The track was released officially on the 2002 Matthew Sweet compilation To Understand: The Early Recordings of Matthew Sweet. In a review of the album, Rolling Stone critic Gavin Edwards describes the song as "enchanting" and as having "harmonies as pretty as you can imagine".
Two other documented Community Trolls' songs are entitled "Six Stock Answers" and "My Roof to Your Roof". "Six Stock Answers", whose vocals are by Stipe, was used in an unreleased low-budget forty-five-minute Super-8 film called Just Like a Movie. It was shot in September 1983 in Athens by New York Rocker photographer Laura Levine, a friend of the members of R.E.M. Those with acting roles included Levine, Michael Stipe, Sweet, Hopper, Lynda Stipe, and R.E.M.'s Bill Berry. One scene in the film, a parody of the "Subterranean Homesick Blues" sequence in D. A. Pennebaker's Bob Dylan documentary Dont Look Back, shows Michael Stipe wearing a skirt and tights flipping placards with the song's lyrics, "Six stock answers to 74,000 questions" repeated ad nauseam. Just Like a Movie's plot has two rival bands performing on the same night, leading up to the climax question of "Which band is everybody going to go see?"